75-year-old man jailed for poisoning family’s palm nut soup

A 75-year-old farmer, Emmanuel Dadzie, who laced the soup set aside for his wife and children with a highly poisonous pesticide at Assin Andoe has been jailed four months, by a Circuit Court in Cape Coast.

The aged man who appeared pale, was bemused by his wife’s claims, pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to intentionally cause harm.

A sample test of the soup by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) however proved positive to the adulteration with a highly poisonous chemical.

His conviction was necessitated by his inability to pay a fine of GH¢1,200 imposed on him by the presiding judge, Mrs Afia Nyarko Adu-Amankwah.

Narrating the case to the Court, Nana Aisha Salifu, Assistant State Attorney, said the complainant Madam Beatrice Appiah aged 45, was a trader whilst her husband, the convict, Emmanuel Dadzie aged 75 and three children reside at Assin Andoe in the Central Region.




However, on Friday, November 2, 2012, the complaint left palm nut soup she had prepared for the family in the bedroom and went to market.

She returned home at about 6pm and upon entering the room, she saw that the convict had taken the lid of the saucepan and poured an unknown substance into the soup which she suspected to be poison.

The complaint confronted the convict but he could not explain to her why he poured the substance into the soup.

The complaint raised alarm which attracted people to the scene and thereafter lodged a complaint with the Assin Manso police, who arrested the convict and handed him over to the Domestic violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in Assin Fosu.

A sample of the soup sent to the GSA for chemicals analysis tested positive to a highly toxic agricultural pesticide.

Source: ghananewsagency.org